I have already written this post once but a technical issue lost the whole thing so here is attempt two. Once again there are no photos as the camera still wasn't fixed.

Todd, Hannah, and I had another lazy morning before packing up and driving the last couple of hours south to Bloomington. Our drive took us around Indianapolis, the capital city of the Indiana, and then onto quieter state roads for the remainder of the trip. We arrived early in the afternoon just in time for nibbles and Sangria at Peggy and Rez's flat. It was a nice warm day and we sat outside on their deck (actually a flat part of the roof accessed by climbing out a window!) in the sun while we caught up on what we'd each been up to since we had split up.

The flat was really cool as were the flatmates, Jeremy and Alex who had both been living and studying in Bloomington for a few years. The town is fairly small and is dominated by the University of Indiana with students forming more than half of the population. The streets were quiet and lined with big old trees.

It was Rez's birthday so we went out that night to celebrate. It was a Tuesday so you might expect it to be quiet but not in Bloomington. There were a couple of bars that had really cheap Tuesday night specials so a lot of people were out, nearly all of them students. The semester was starting next week so there were lots of people new to town plus those who were returning after a summer at home. It was a fun night with lots of a games of darts and beer pong as well as meeting a lot of new people, in particular exchange students.

Unfortunately an incident just as we were leaving has coloured the memory a bit. As we were walking down the starts one of the flatmates somehow got into a tangle with one of the bouncers at the bar. I didn't see so I'm not exactly sure what happened but regardless what happened next was completely over the top. There just happened to be some police officers standing at the bottom of the staircase who right away pinned our friend to the ground and arrested him. Next thing we know he's being carted off to the town jail where he had to spend the night.

We managed to get a lift to the jail from a woman who witnessed it who told us that she had seen the bouncer involved do similar things to this in the past. At the jail we asked (through a telephone) what was happened and would our friend be let out. After a few minutes of getting mixed messages we were suddenly told that we had to leave and that if we didn't we would be arrested also. On cue a few officers walked inside and basically forced us to abandon him without giving us any idea about what was going on.

When he was finally let out the next day (after being forced to pay bail) we found out that he had been changed with a number of things included resisting arrest. We all witnessed what happened when he was pinned to the ground and this could not be further from the truth. To make things worse the resisting arrest charge meant that the bail was unlikely to be paid back. I had always heard stories and seen videos about how over the top American cops are but I didn't expect to have it demonstrated like this. The police response in all aspects of this episode was completely out of proportion to what was going on, as were the consequences for our friend. The cops acted like thugs using force and threats and seemed completely incapable of explaining exactly what he had done wrong and what would be happening to him. After witnessing this it really doesn't surprise me just how screwed up America is with respect to crime and the public's relationship with law enforcement. I would not trust any of those officers with my safety after seeing them rough someone up and then fabricate charges.

The contrast between this and what I have seen of the New Zealand police could not be starker. Back home I get the impression that officers are well trained and tactful. US cops on the other hand don't seem to be able to use any sort of judgement when dealing with issues. Force and intimidation are the only tools. Of course this is a big generalisation and I'm sure there are thousands of officers who are not like this. It's just hard to see it any differently after experiencing something that fitted the stereotype so completely.

But anyway I've gone on a bit of a tangent here. The next morning was a bit slow for everyone after getting to bed very late. Peggy and Rez eventually had to get up to try and go to their last day of orientation. The rest of us did some laundry and other boring stuff before going out to an awesome Thai buffet for lunch. After that we wandered around the campus for an hour or two. The campus is very green with a lot of large trees and open spaces. The architecture is very nice with the buildings having a nice cohesiveness in their design, the majority of the which are built of the nice white limestone. We visited the famous Kinsey Institute and walked alongside rows of frat houses, decked out just like in the movies. As we were walking back to the flat we came across a deer with two fawns, munching away on the plants in someone's garden. It was cool to see so far inside the town.

By late afternoon everyone was home again and we packed our gear into the car for one last trip together. Orientation had finished and we had about five days before semester started and there was one place left to see; Chicago. It was a good four hour drive away however so we decided to stay somewhere closer for the night. We drove north for about an hour before stopping at a state park called Lake Waveland. It was a bit of an odd place with an immense amount of open space for camping mixed with very few facilities. As the name suggests there was a lake and we tried to have a swim. Unfortunately the water was a bit gross, smelling strongly of the geese who watched us from the the shoreline. We were all exhausted and were in bed and asleep almost before the sun had set.

The next morning we left early to finish the drive to Chicago. Read all about it next time!